Video programs

CYFEST-15 in Yerevan is dedicated to (anti)fragility of human and non-human body, biological, social and cyberspaces, stories and scenarios of the future as well as confrontations and relationships with the world in a state of transition.

BETWEEN X&Y

The 2nd International Gyumri Art Week will present a synthesis and revision of the application of new research models, as well as rethinking the perceptions of modern HUMAN in the vision of time, where art, mathematical, religious, and political palettes intersect.

Titled XENOlandscapes, the XXII edition of the International Image Festival focused on what Bruno Latour called the Сry of the Earth — the power of action of people and communities that allowed them to alter and transform their small environments, thus achieving a movement of regeneration of ecosystems that enable their survival. The works in the program offered a vision of design as a tool for change and reflection, that contributed to the reformulation of consumption practices, and reimagined environment as a place of creation and democratic distribution of knowledge.

Using works from the CYLAND video archive and new films by wellknown and young artists, this program examines several aspects of analog and digital fermentation of the moving image. By fermentation, we mean the introduction of a certain reactive element to an artwork, which changes the very “fabric” of the moving image, its structure, and accordingly the message too.

The program includes artistic experiments to shift the boundaries of perception of physical and virtual reality, studying the inhuman and human using new digital technologies.

From the first analogue films of underground directors working with 16mm celluloid film cameras in Petersburg in the 1990s to the works of present-day artists with their arsenal of digital camera, computer editing techniques and media genres accessible for transformation, including found and archive celluloid films, 3D animation and placement in the Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 Internet environment.  

The program was shown as part of CYFEST-14 and was a collaboration with Dartington Trust. This is a centre for learning, arts, ecology and social justice based on a 1,200 acre site near Totnes, in Devon. The experimental art installations were dotted around the estate for the full ten days of the festival.

The CYLAND Video Archive presents ‘Digital Fermentation’, a video art program of 9 works, from the first films by underground Saint Petersburg filmmakers of the 1990s to contemporary artists working with digital video and the transformation of various media genres: found footage, animation, installation, dance, etc. The program demonstrates experiments by artists to shift the boundaries of perceiving reality, and to examine the ‘human’ and ‘non-human’ through the use of new digital technologies.

The exhibition presents works of renowned video artists from Finland and Russia. At the festival in Vyborg, Saara Ekström’s work about the architecture of the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki will be exhibited in Russia for the first time. The heroes of the works are the buildings themselves: from the villa of the architect Alvar Aalto in France to new housing developments, industrial buildings and an abandoned children’s pioneer camp in the Leningrad Oblast. Through performance, choreography, dramaturgy, digital photography and video collages, artists convey the emotional sensation of modern architecture and its immersion in the environment. The video works investigate the topic of interaction between humans and architectural spaces, structures and their elements in the historical context, and the “genius loci” – “the spirit of the place”.

The exhibition is organized with the support of the Finnish Institute in St. Petersburg, the Av-arkki Center of Finnish Media Art and CYLAND MediaArtLab.

The festival of video art and digital culture VIDEOFORMES was founded in 1984 and is a major international platform for contemporary digital and video art. The festival program includes exhibitions, screenings, educational events and performances. CYLAND Media Art Lab curator Victoria Ilyushkina is among the jury members of the festival 2020. As part of the project, Victoria will also hold a presentation of the St. Petersburg Videoforma Festival and the CYLAND VIDEO ARCHIVE.

July 13th, The North-Western Branch of the National Center for Contemporary Arts – ROSIZO presents a two-day arts festival at the Fort “Constantin” in Kronstadt. Supported by CYLAND MediaArtLab and curated by Elena Gubanova, the festival “Впередсмотрящий / The Lookout” brings contemporary Russian and foreign artists working with sculpture, objects and multimedia installations.

This video program presents the cult film for Petersburg culture, “The Manifest of Neoakademism” (1998) inspired by the founder of the movement Timur Novikov. The author of the film is Olga Tobreluts (Russia), a pioneer of media art in Russia. The work of Anton Vidokle (USA) studies the roots of the phenomenon of Russian cosmism. Anton Ginzburg (USA) projects masterpieces of constructivism and urbanistic theses from the 1953 treatise by Ivan Shcheglov. Almagul Menlibaeva (Kazakhstan) turns to the national epic and through it conveys the gender ideas of our times. Alexandra Lerman (USA) models perception of nature through the consciousness of trees. Polina Kanis (Russia) reveals the frustration of ideological rituals through performance.

In “Changing Landscapes 3”, twelve films/video works selected from CYLAND’s Video Archive create together a genuine, introspective look at contemporary Russian New Media. These videos / films by active Eastern European artists offer personal perspectives into the continuum of their native country’s past, present and future. Pieces by established, recognized artists Boris Kazakov, Yuri Vasiliev and Ludmila Belova, Marina Alexeeva, Dimitri Lurie are joined by early works by Maxim Svishev, Masha Sha, Anton Khlabov and the “Upward!” community – each embodying artistic development within the age of digital technology in Russia

«TIME IS THE ONLY THING THAT DOES NOT EXIST OUTSIDE OF US*»: CYLAND Video Program at the Non-Stop Festival, GROUND Solyanka

As part of the festival “Non-stop” at the GROUND Solyanka gallery, the new program of 10 video works from the CYLAND archive are presented.

The annual CYFEST Digital Video Art Program is a selection of 20 art works which are chosen from international submissions via an open call. The program of the international video & media artworks by established and emerging artists curated by Victoria Ilyushkina.

The technological progress of recent years has strengthened the ties between humanity and technology, machines and artificial intellect, and made the interaction between organic and synthetic life more intimate.

People and machines learn from each other with the help of neural networks. People’s consciousness undergoes certain changes. They develop a different outlook on the notions of life and death, moral problems of scientific experiments, territorial and virtual boundaries, tracking systems and total digital control. Personalities surrounded by a mirror cube of social networks hide behind their avatars and continue to exist in their accounts even after death. If you are absent from social networks, does it mean that no one knows about your existence, or is it a way of avoiding media control? The preservation of memory and transfer of information onto a digital database, and the fast development of artificial intellect and its humanization makes us face the inevitable question of personality identification. Who are we? What is our future going to be like? This program is dedicated to a contemplation of these problems by modern artists.

THE CYFEST 11 DIGITAL VIDEO PROGRAM is curated selection of video art works via open call, in various innovative genres: animated gifs, net art, 3D  and stop-motion animation, cinema 4D, mockumentary and performance art, gaming, digital collage, and experimental films. The program features Russian artists from Petersburg and Moscow.

The program includes video works of artists, presented in CYLAND video archive.